The College Dropout

Aye. Bruno injured too.

Second half been awful. We are never a good team without Joelinton and Willock.

Lloyd Kelly and Schar is a bit of a glimpse into a Schar Guehi partnership. Too weak in the air.

Don’t know if he was injured but we looked disjointed as soon as we took Willock off.

Tonali not deepest. Back to play RCM that he’s done badly.

Was it not Joelinton he ran off?

Can’t blame Pope, it’s right in the corner. Poor from Bruno, Joelinton and Kelly.

Gordon takes so many touches.

Yeh this is a disaster.

Missed 2 massive chances. We can win this. Kelly and Schar getting to grips with Antonio.

Lost a lot of confidence since then.

Didn’t want to single him out but yeh.

Get Joelinton back on the left.

Kelly and Schar aren’t winning any duels and it’s giving West Ham momentum and confidence. They are getting bullied. Dan Burn wouldn’t stand for this.

I think Jackson is a good choice if your budget allows. That front 3 probably means you don’t /wont own all 3 Palmer, Saka and Salah.

Aye it’s a game of probabilities.

You lads take my posts too seriously and are easily rattled. While I’m the Champ, I’ll be referring to myself as such. The game has a large component of luck. But like real life, you often have to make your own luck. It’s more luck than random. Luck as in - increasing your own chances by picking players with good fixtures, underlying stats, ability, confidence. The Salah vs Haaland thing has had a big element of luck. Similar underlying statistics - wildly different outcomes.

It's definitely not a beyond-obvious move this week for an -8 Bournemouth beat City and Arsenal at home and was the better team against us. I think their best games are to come. I wasn't convinced it was worth a further hit, and Isak against Wham is a better fixture than Bournemouth away. Maybe it's the obvious move with 3 FTs but not with 1. Worst rank in the last 3 seasons is 112k. That's enough to win most casual mini-leagues. I expect to do no worse than 250k in a game of 6m active players. I'm good at the game, sorry if that offends you pal.

Bottled doing a minus 8 to get Salah Isak and Joao Pedro. Only did the first 2 which has already paid off but JP would’ve been a fantastic hit already. The Champ is good at this game. Need to trust my gut more. Patience really worked out for me last season but I have to remember I actually liked my team which is why I could be patient. I need JP and Saka to be happy with my team. Then I can make small changes from there.

Missed the goal. But I’ve liked the look of him. Another Cobham grad I think

This is not entirely true. Most clubs have to invest vast sums to get onto the gravy train. When they get on it they want to be able to stay on it or rejoin quickly.

By having a squad that consistently finishes multiple places above its wage grade (and its squad cost). Buying players that can improve over time and be worth more than we paid in fee and paying in salary. Being able to sell prized assets and not miss a beat. If we can finish 2-4 places above our wage bill 4 out of the next 5 years we’ll have done brilliantly. I can’t emphasise enough how closely the league table mirrors the wage bill table. Most clubs are +- 2-3 spots year on year. Brentford have the 15th biggest squad spend. Overall they have not spent loads of money relative to the league. That angle is statistically false.

You can’t say ‘wages aside’. Wages are more important to success than transfer fees. Wages is what attracts players with proven track records of performing at the highest level. Real Madrid’s spend on transfers is not astronomical and behind a number of teams in Europe. But they are #1 in wages. Brentford are spending by PL standards, lowly sums and can only offer bottom level PL wages so the players they sign cannot be of massive repute or have proven track records. That should make them relegation candidates year in, year out. As are the other teams paying such low wages. I use this same metric to judge us. Our squad cost and wages has us 7th/8th. Anything more is an overachievement. Anything less is an underachievement.

Brentford have the third lowest wage bill in the division. Lower than Leicester and only above the other 2 promoted teams. Their squad cost in fees is 15th. They should be fighting relegation every season. But through transfers and great management they don’t. A lot of those are good players imo. The terrible GK aside most of them are 24 or under with room to improve. But look at the macro cost of the squad in fees and wages it’s unarguable that Brentford spend their money wisely.

No.. DCL is bad. He gets chances and misses them. His general play isn't even impressive. Lad is not good.